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Defectors Claim Attack That Killed Syria Soldiers

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A force of Syrian Army defectors claimed responsibility for a Wednesday attack that killed a military officer and eight soldiers in central Syria, another signal that disaffected troops are taking a larger role in the antigovernment uprising and pushing it into more violence after months of a brutal government crackdown.

The attack came as an Arab delegation led by the Qatari prime minister met with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Syria’s capital, to press his government to negotiate with the street protesters and end the conflict, which the United Nations says has left more than 3,000 dead. Syrian activists reported at least 10 more civilian deaths on Wednesday.

One Syrian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in Damascus, offered kind words for the delegation’s mission. “We have deep divisions between two sides, so we need a national and serious dialogue to save the country,” the official said.

But in the hours before the meeting, the government telegraphed an intransigent stance, mustering tens of thousands of supporters to rally in the capital for the second time this month. The Syrian satellite television station Addounia showed thousands of demonstrators filling Umayyad Square in the heart of Damascus. They were waving Syrian flags, holding pictures of the president and chanting, “The people want Bashar al-Assad.”

The Syrian state news agency, SANA, said the rally had been held under the banner “Long live the homeland and the leader of the homeland; the Syrian people are one family.” A similar rally was held the previous Wednesday in Aleppo, Syria’s second-biggest city.

With most foreign journalists barred from Syria and the government keeping tight control on information, it is hard to assess how great a role coercion plays in such displays. Certainly, significant elements of the Syrian elite remain entwined with and supportive of the Assad government.

The country’s military and security forces, which had long appeared largely cohesive, have lost perhaps 10,000 to defections, according to an American official. A fraction of that number have coalesced into two groups, the Free Syrian Army and the Free Officers Movement. Their clashes with Syrian security forces have increased in the past weeks.

It was the Free Syrian Army that claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog group operating in exile, said a rocket-propelled grenade had struck a vehicle carrying troops on the highway linking Hama and Salamiya.

Meanwhile, activists said, several towns in southern, central and northern Syria complied with a call for a general strike on Wednesday by the Syrian National Council, an umbrella group of opposition parties and figures. The strike, the group had said, was to be the first phase in a campaign of civil disobedience to bring down the government.

Activists said that Syrian security forces had killed at least seven people in the central city of Homs, including an 18-month-old toddler, and that one protester had been killed in a suburb of Damascus and two others in towns in the northwestern province of Idlib, near the Turkish border.

The delegation to Damascus followed an urgent session of the Arab League last week in Cairo, where officials urged the Syrian leadership to end its crackdown before possible foreign intervention and gave Mr. Assad until the end of this month to do so or face a vote to suspend Syria’s league membership. Besides Qatar’s prime minister, Sheik Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, the delegation included the foreign ministers of Egypt, Algeria, Oman and Sudan and the Arab League’s chief, Nabil el-Araby.

The Syrian state news agency, SANA, quoted Mr. Thani as saying, “We took note of the commitment of the Syrian government to work with the Arab committee to reach a solution.” Opposition figures have repeatedly said they will not sit for talks with the Syrian leadership as long as the government’s crackdown continues.

“I think these initiatives can’t do more than kill time,” said Fayez Sara, a prominent opposition figure in Damascus. “I am not building too much hope on it. I don’t see anything new or practical in it. There is a deep crisis in Syria, and the regime doesn’t have the intention to solve it.”

Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, and an employee of The New York Times from Damascus, Syria.

A version of this article appears in print on October 27, 2011, on page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: Defectors Claim Attack That Killed Syria Soldiers. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe